Priyanka Gandhi backs Rahul’s suggestion of non-Gandhi politician heading Congress: Book

Priyanka Vadra agrees with her brother Rahul’s suggestion that a non-Gandhi politician should head the Congress. (file pic)

Senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has said that she seconds her brother Rahul Gandhi’s thought that a non-Gandhi should head the party. According to a report in The Indian Express, Priyanka is quoted in a book saying that there are plenty of people capable of leading the party.

“I think that the party should find its own path also,” Priyanka has been quoted as saying in the book – ‘India Tomorrow: Conversations with the Next Generation of Political Leaders’. Penned by Pradeep Chhibber and Harsh Shah, the book was launched last week.

“If there were to be another party president, he would be my boss,” she has said. “If he tells me tomorrow that he doesn’t want me in Uttar Pradesh but wants me to be in Andaman and Nicobar (Islands), then I would jolly well go to Andaman and Nicobar.”

Asked about the continuation of Gandhis in the Congress’ leadership role, she said, “As my brother said very clearly in his resignation letter post the elections that he thinks he should take responsibility for the last election. And perhaps not in the letter but elsewhere, he has said that none of us should be president of the party and I am in full agreement with him.”

Rahul Gandhi in the book has been quoted as saying that he doesn’t need to be in that post of the president to fight for the party.

“I am here, standing by the Congress Party and ready to fight for it because I believe in the party. I don’t need to be the Congress president in order to fight for the party or to work on strengthening it,” Rahul replied when asked for his response if the party asks him to return as president.

Rahul had resigned as AICC national president after the party’s drubbing in the general elections 2019. The party had, however, declined to accept his resignation and requested him to continue as the Congress president. But Rahul was adamant on his decision and the Congress Working Committee, the highest decision making body in the party, accepted his resignation three months later.

Rahul said the party has to develop a culture of accountability, and that “begins right at the top.”

“I am pretty clear in my mind that I am accountable for the 2019 loss and that I had to step down as a consequence,” the book has quoted him as saying.

To a question whether the decision was supported by his family, he said that “obviously they discussed this as a family”. “I have listened to and appreciated my mother and sister’s perspectives”.

Rahul, according to party leaders, had in internal meetings suggested that a non-Gandhi should be Congress president, the book said.